Twitter And Facebook Are Considered As Flooded With Disinformation Content About US Midterm Elections

Hoax content is widely spread on Twitter and Facebook during midterm elections in the US. (photo: doc. Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Misinformation or hoaxes about elections in the US are spreading across social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook's Meta Platform, as vote counting for midterm elections in the US continues Wednesday, November 9 in key battleground states.

Experts on misinformation on the internet have been working to contain the misleading narratives that spread ahead of the election, including that only the results announced on Tuesday night are legit.

"We have seen and will continue to see bad actors, pushing the narrative that only election night results are valid," Emma Steiner, a disinformation analyst at the nonprofit Common Cause, told a news conference on Wednesday, November 9.

"As key battleground states like Arizona continue to tabulate results, we could see a spike in disinformation about that tally," Steiner said.

The proliferation of such content raises questions about how social media platforms enforce their policies against misleading content about elections.

Common Cause, which monitors social media for voter suppression efforts, said on Tuesday that Twitter was taking no action on posts the organization flagged as problematic content.

Twitter, now owned by billionaire Elon Musk, laid off about half its staff last week, including many of the employees responsible for gathering and improving credible information on the service.

The company, which has lost many members of its communications team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Some online posts also circulate videos without context and weave them into narratives aimed at questioning the legitimacy of the election," Steiner said.

A widely circulated video of a polling officer marking required initials on a ballot in Wisconsin was mistaken for a Philadelphia polling officer filling out a ballot, and is gaining traction on Twitter and TikTok.

In the state of Arizona, issues with dozens of electronic vote counting machines were also seized Tuesday by former US President Donald Trump and his followers, who falsely claimed on social media and elsewhere that it was evidence of election fraud by the Democratic Party.